Basketball comedy 'Champions' - from former Duxbury director Bobby Farrelly - is a winner

If Bobby Farrelly’s shaggy basketball comedy “Champions” doesn’t melt your heart, it’s probably stopped beating. Sure, it’s a formulaic, overly long sports flick, but it still hits you like Steph Curry hits 3-pointers.  It’s a joy to watch.

Farrelly, the former Duxbury resident who made so many smash comedies with his brother, Peter − “Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Shallow Hal” − makes his solo directing debut with a remake of the 2018 Spanish hit “Campeones.”

He smartly casts his “Kingpin” pal, Woody Harrelson, in the lead and surrounds him with a terrific group of actors who flat out steal the movie. Farrelly recruited the cast from the Special Olympics and Best Buddies. Each deserves a mention: James Day Keith (a North Andover resident), Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Casey Metcalfe, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, Alex Hintz and Bradley Edens.

More than 30 years after starring as a streetball hustler in "White Men Can't Jump," Harrelson returns to the court to play Marcus Markovich, a disgraced minor league coach for the Iowa Stallions. He’s been exiled to 90 days of community service for driving with a blood alcohol level three times the limit after plowing into a parked police cruiser. The events transpire in the wake of Marcus being fired for “going all WWE” on his boss during a game. The GIF-able knockout lands on ESPN, shattering any hope Marcus has of returning to the NBA.

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Disgruntled and with few prospects, Marcus packs up his anger issues and reluctantly heads to a Des Moines rec center to coach a basketball squad full of players with intellectual disabilities. Forget the pick-and-roll, Marcus has to figure out a way to get Johnny (Iannucci) to shower and Showtime (Edens) to stop shooting backward from half-court  A spitfire player − and the only girl on the team, Cosentino (Devlin) − tells Marcus that looks-wise, he’s “no McConaughey.”

Faster than you can say “Bad News Bears,” Marcus is second-guessing his life’s choices − including a Tinder hookup with Alex (Kaitlin Olson), who wears the best sweaters in Iowa and turns out to be a player’s older sister. In the name of creating drama, could a one-night stand develop into something more?

Olson and Harrelson are such a laugh-out-loud pair that you don’t mind their contrived reunion. The movie’s opening shows the pair trading insults in a morning-after tête-à-tête. Later, the two pose as good cop (him)-bad cop (her) to shake down one of the player’s cruel bosses who won’t allow time off for games. They leave you wanting more of their schtick.

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The rest of the cast, which includes Ernie Hudson, Matt Cook and Cheech Marin, are there to teach Marcus empathy.

“These guys are capable of more than you think,” he’s told. And they keep Marcus on the road to redemption. Sure, they serve one function, but they’re all good company.

Amid a playbook of cliches, Farrelly sticks to his de rigueur comic sensibilities − fart jokes, a projectile vomit gag, body odor bit and some well-placed F-bombs − but there’s also a lot of heart. Harrelson plays the part with a winning blend of easygoing charm and smooth comic timing, which helps to forgive the inevitable predictability.

Before the story even arrives at the climactic Big Game, Mark Rizzo’s screenplay dishes out every conventional sports-movie beat, including practice and game montages and, you know, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, with a few inspirational speeches tossed in for good measure. Much of the action is set to the tune of Chumbawamba’s 1997 hit “Tubthumping” (“I get knocked down, but I get up again”).

The real payoff comes right on cue when the friends help Marcus rediscover his love of the game and, in return, he shows them how to play like a team. There are no losers in “Champions,” just buzzer-beating winners who’ll have you on your feet, cheering.

'Champions'

Rating: PG-13 for strong language and crude/sexual reference

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin and Matt Cook

Director: Bobby Farrelly

Writer: Mark Rizzo

Running time: 123 minutes

Where to watch: In theaters

Grade: B+

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Former Duxbury director Bobby Farrelly finds winning formula in 'Champions'